3-pointers: Takeaways from the Rockets' Game 3 loss

Stephen Curry broke out of his funk in a major way while James Harden and the Rockets seemed helpless to slow down him and the Warriors in a Game 3 rout.

Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

The Rockets had to know that the Warriors would hit them with their best. If they didn't, they needed to spend a couple bucks for a few newspapers and read the comments from every Warriors player in the same room as a microphone in the previous three days and would have known what was coming.

They had to know Stephen Curry would snap out of it. He has become routinely defined as the best shooter in NBA history. His 2 of 13 3-point shooting to start to the series was not going to last. Curry is as likely to shoot well as Clint Capela is to remain tall.

The Rockets should have known it would take their best to come out of Oracle Arena with a win Sunday, yet they treated the game as if they were so superior they would get their switches, beat the relative weak link in the Warriors defense and would roll up enough points to get their win.

It does not work that way against a Warriors team that had yet to show the Rockets their best. The Rockets got off to a fast three-minute start. The Warriors cranked up their defense, correcting a few early coverage mistakes. The Rockets never rose to the challenge they had to see coming.

The Rockets missed a stack of layups in the first half. Make those good shots and the game is tight. But there was no reason to be deflated down 11 coming out for the second half. When the Rockets tip-toed into the second half, they were blown off the court. The benches cleared with a 29-point Warriors lead. The Rockets left Oracle with a 41-point loss, the most lopsided Rockets loss or Warriors win in their playoff history. The Warriors, one would think, have their attention now.

Draymond Green and the Warriors helped make Chris Paul an offensive non-factor while Game 3 was still in doubt.

Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

1. The Warriors might not need all of their stars to be great at the same time, though there does not seem to be anything that will deter Kevin Durant from that other than perhaps giving someone else a turn.

The Rockets don't have that luxury, not in this series. They could beat the Jazz with James Harden struggling thanks to a dominant night from Chris Paul. They could knock off the Timberwolves with Paul misfiring and Harden rolling. Solid playoff teams, worthy of their place in the Western Conference playoff pack as the Wolves and Jazz might be, they are not the Warriors.

Against the Warriors, Harden must be masterful. Paul must be sharp and efficient. The Rockets could get a win in the Warriors' one customary dud per playoff series without their stars soaring. When the Warriors reached their best, however, with their defense its most aggressive and their offense its most unstoppable, it would take everything Harden and Paul can bring, either as scorers or playmakers or on some occasions as both, to match that.

Neither came close Sunday. Harden got off to a strong start by beating picking apart the Warriors' pick-and-roll coverage, usually beating Stephen Curry off the dribble and getting five assists in the first nine minutes. The Warriors, however, were going to correct their mistakes. They would swarm to Harden in the paint. He would have to finish in traffic and still set up teammates for open looks. He rarely did either.

Harden dropped in one late 3 before the benches cleared with the Warriors up 29, but until then, he was 1 of 5 from deep, having never given the Warriors much trouble after than initial flurry.

Paul offered less until the Warriors pulled away. He was just 1 of 7 in the first half with one assist and was 2 of 11 before he finished the third quarter with a flurry after the Warriors' lead had reached 28.

He missed some great looks, but the Warriors don't allow many. Instead, Harden and Paul have to make tough shots, more tough shots than the Warriors' stars even need to take. That is their burden in this series. Teammates have to knock down the shots Paul and Harden get for them. Harden and Paul have to be sensational.

That is a lot to ask against the defense that has been by far the NBA's best in the post-season. But if the Warriors are going to be at their best, the Rockets needed every bit of that from the stars put together to beat them.

For the first time in the series, Stephen Curry had a reason to celebrate.

Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

2. No one could have been terribly surprised when Stephen Curry erupted. He does that sort of thing. He was not hurt in the two games to begin the series when he misfired. He was moving too well, getting to the rim and finishing too well for that. His rhythm might have been off after his six-week layoff to end the regular season and begin the playoffs. But the best 3-point shooter in NBA history was likely to make 3s.

Yet, as much as he said he had not lost a bit of confidence, he was pressing in the first half on Sunday. The entire Oracle crowd seemed to be trying to will him out of his brief slump. After his 2 of 13 start to the series, he was 1 of 7 in the first half.

He began the second half with a lefty layup, the first of four buckets at the rim before he finally nailed his 3, from 30 feet, to open the floodgates.

With that, the Rockets knew who he was and let him off the hook.

No matter how talented and confident Curry is, he could have felt the burden of trying to live up to his own expectations if the game was tight and the Rockets were not allowing those layups that eased the pressure and got him going.

There was a reason he let out that shout after his third-quarter finger roll. The shimmy after the 3 was typical. But the shout was about a release of all that had been pent up.

The Rockets spoke of their failings defensively. They did not switch and pressure with enough force. They were in no way disruptive, getting all of three steals. But while they fell short in many ways defensively, they allowed the Warriors' two-time MVP to get on a roll that eventually led to him raining 3s.

Curry made 4 of 5 3-pointers in the second half to help take the game from in the Warriors' control to the record books. Along the way, he gave the Rockets one more problem. Worse, they had to know when he was down, they helped him up.

3. For the second time in the series, the Rockets have to win. This time, the Warriors won't help.

The Rockets had to recover from their Game 1 loss and did. They could not lose the first two games of the series in Houston and expect to win four of the remaining five games, with three in Oakland, to get past the reigning champs.

They took care of business in Game 2, but with the loss in Game 3 on Sunday, they are back in that desperate situation.

Teams have come back from a 3-1 deficit. The Rockets did against the Clippers in 2015. The Warriors were in a 3-1 hole to the Thunder in 2016. The Cavaliers came back from down 3-1 in the Finals that season. But these Warriors are the version fortified with Kevin Durant. They have not lost more than one game in any of the six full series since he signed on.

Jonathan Feigen has been the Rockets beat writer since 1998 and a basketball nut since before Willis Reed limped out for Game 7. He became a sports writer because the reporter that was supposed to cover the University of Delaware basketball team decided to instead play one more season of college lacrosse and has never looked back.

Feigen, who has won APSE, APME and United States Basketball Writers Association awards from El Campo to Houston, came to Texas in 1981 to cover the Rice Birds, was Sports Editor in Garland before moving to Dallas to cover everything from the final hurrah of the Southwest Conference to SMU after the death penalty.

After joining the Houston Chronicle in 1990, Feigen has covered the demise of the SWC, the rise of the Big 12 and the Rockets at their championship best.